Film: Up and Coming - Hayden Christensen; Life as the Latest Bearer of the Force

THE young actor sitting down to lunch could be the next Harrison Ford. Or he could follow a less stellar path for unknowns who have been in a ''Star Wars'' movie: he could be the next Mark Hamill.

Come next summer, and the release of ''Star Wars: Episode 2 Attack of the Clones,'' in which Hayden Christensen, 20, plays Anakin Skywalker (the character who becomes Darth Vader), he may earn the regard that has already inspired fan sites like ''Anakin and Amidala Erotic Fanfiction Archive (No one under 18, please)'' and the ''Hayden Christensen Estrogen Brigade.'' But first he's starring in a family drama, ''Life as a House,'' opening on Friday, that few avid ''Star Wars'' fans are likely to notice.

''Life as a House'' opens with Sam (Mr. Christensen), stoned and wearing heavy eye makeup, practicing autoerotic asphyxiation in a closet. The actor, a 6-foot-1-inch natural blond who is of Italian and Swedish heritage, dyed his hair black and lost 20 pounds to play the gaunt 16-year-old Goth. ''I'm hardly recognizable in it,'' he said. (In truth, he looks like the male equivalent of Leelee Sobieski in ''My First Mister.'')

Although he was 19 when he played the part, Mr. Christensen felt he needed to observe younger teenagers to get it right. ''All those insecurities of being 16,'' he said, ''how they'd fidget with their thumbs when they're nervous.''

''Life as a House,'' a sort of ''Mr. Neurotic-and-Fatally-Ill Builds His Dream House,'' gives Sam much to be nervous about. His father (Kevin Kline) is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. His mother (Kristin Scott Thomas) has remarried and isn't even sure she likes her difficult son.

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Even though he beat out 400 actors -- reportedly Colin Hanks, Tom Hanks's son, and Leonardo DiCaprio were among them -- for the role of Anakin in the next two episodes of ''Star Wars,'' his models are not the Heath Ledger-Ryan Phillipe pretty boys. Instead he has set his sights on becoming another Ed Norton. (Being taken seriously as an actor does not preclude appearing in ''Star Wars'' movies -- see the career of Natalie Portman, Queen Amidala in Episode 1 and Anakin's future wife.)

A natural athlete in high school in Toronto (he is a provincially ranked tennis player and played competitive hockey), Mr. Christensen spent summers with his grandmother near Valley Stream on Long Island. During the week he took tennis lessons; on weekends his grandmother, Rose Schwartz, took him to Manhattan to attend the Actors Studio. ''If I hadn't ended up acting, I would have gone to college on a tennis scholarship,'' Mr. Christensen said. He still plans to study philosophy some day -- ''real practical things like that,'' he said.

In ''Higher Ground,'' a Canadian television series, he played a sexually abused high school student on a downward spiral. He also had a bit part in ''The Virgin Suicides,'' directed by Sofia Coppola, and appeared in small parts in even smaller movies, many on television.

There are now 130 characters in the growing ''Star Wars'' series, some of them, like Anakin, with multiple names and identities (and actors: Jake Lloyd played the young Anakin in the 1999 installment, ''Star Wars: Episode 1 -- The Phantom Menace''). So don't blame Mr. Christensen for researching his role on the Internet. He also had to learn how to do ''blue screen'' work. ''It's a great leap of faith to be acting and not knowing who you're speaking to -- an assistant director who is pretending to be an alien.''

Mr. Christensen, somewhat quiet and shy, was mobbed in Toronto last month at the film festival and says he has already had to deal with what he calls ''a few weird stalker-type people.'' The amount of attention he is receiving now is just a precursor to what will happen when the real hoopla begins for ''Star Wars'' later on. He's already modeled for the inevitable Anakin Skywalker action figure. ''You stand on a pedestal and a laser beam scans you from head to toe,'' he said. By May, he promises, ''my face will be everywhere.''

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A version of this article appears in print on October 21, 2001, on Page 2002022 of the National edition with the headline: Film: Up and Coming - Hayden Christensen; Life as the Latest Bearer of the Force. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe